Deanna Kennedy
Dean of the College of Business and Economics
About
Dr. Deanna Kennedy is the dean of the College of Business and Economics at Western Washington University. Dr. Kennedy was previously serving as associate dean of the School of Business at the University of Washington Bothell. Her research spans across fields where she has over 30 publications including refereed papers, book chapters and books. She studies the operations, communication, and processes of project teams. Recently her research team introduced the new framework of mental model shifts to explain how teams work at being on the same page. Her work has been funded by NASA and the Army Research Office and she is an Associate Editor focused on team-based approaches and research at the Group and Organization Management Journal. She is also an avid speaker and writer about the need for Native American and Indigenous business research and teaching that advances diversity and culturally based values in business strategies. Such work supports the training of a global mindset for all students, and particularly addresses approaches of Native entrepreneurs and business leaders in driving the future of Native economic development. She is a founding member of the Indigenous Business and Public Administration Journal, a lecturer in the Renewing Native and Indigenous Economies at the Hoover Institution and serves as co-chair of the taskforce for increasing the pipeline of black and indigenous talent as part of the state working group of Washington Business School’s for Racial Equity.